Beginning with the demand for quota reform, the July-August student uprising succeeded in bringing down the Awami League government. The news of Sheikh Hasina's resignation on August 5 and her departure from the country brought an end to Awami League's decade-and-a-half long rule. After three days of government less country, the reign of the interim government started from August 8. Dr. Muhammad Yunus is leading a large-size interim government. I say large because earlier the scope of unelected government was not so wide. All the unelected governments that have come to power in the country since the 1990s have had a maximum of eleven members. This is the first time the country has seen an interim government of twenty one members.
After the new government came to power, the most talked about word is 'reforms'. With the power of this word, the country's administration and judiciary have changed. Much of the Awami League era is now gone. Some were jailed, some were transferred, some were fired and many went into hiding to avoid arrest. Leaders of Awami League and the 14-party coalition allied to the party are absent from the political field, they are fugitives at home and abroad. Awami League regime was a hotbed of fascism, this campaign gained quite popularity. To eliminate the fascism of the Awami League, various types of cleansing operations are going on everywhere. Some of these raids are governed by administrative rules, and most are forced.
They are strangers to the organization that called for the overthrow of the Awami League government. They were thought to be non-political organizations, only for students. After the fall of the government, it appears that all other political parties have come here to rob credit. In the movement, there were discussions or debates about how many people had gathered and how many people had been gathered by BNP-Jamaat and Qaumi Madrasah-centric political parties. The section of students who gathered under the banner of the anti-discrimination student movement, which was initially at the center of the discussion, is gradually losing its influence. The initial empowerment of students seems to be slowly waning with the inclusion of two of their representatives in the interim government, a Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser and a Coordinator.
It is not even a month and a day since this government took charge, but in the meantime, the strong campaign to amend-repeal-rewrite the constitution has started. It has also started to be said that the 1972 constitution did not reflect the hopes and aspirations of the nation. I am also hearing strange claims that people's mandate was not taken in drafting the constitution. The constitution of ‘72 or the constitution of the party, those who are saying such things, are desperate to present a movement of five weeks of government change as the main one, ignoring the glory of the great war of liberation. For this purpose, most of them are very young, but there are many learned people who are supporting them.
Politicians are few and far between today giving speeches about rewriting the constitution. Ali Riaz, distinguished Professor of Politics and Government at Illinois State University, USA, is making a desperate attempt to rewrite it. We knew Ali Riaz as a regular columnist for a national newspaper in Bangladesh. After assuming power of the Interim government, he has been voicing the same opinion at various events in the country, and many others are joining him. In a recent event in the capital, he commented that rewriting the constitution is necessary even if the constituent assembly is held to fix the democratic institutions of the state. He did not stop here, after saying the same thing in several places, trying to gather more people in his favor. But it is well known that the power of an unelected interim government during a constitutional crisis after a prime minister's vacancy is very limited, and no matter how much this government chants reforms, its tenure and powers are not the same as those of an elected government. This government is a government that the next elected parliament will have to give legitimacy to. The legitimacy of the government is in the hands of the next elected government, how can they amend-repeal-rewrite the constitution? Naturally this is not supposed to happen.
Some are also demanding to change the national flag and national anthem of the country after the collapse of the Awami League government. Brigadier General (retired) Abdullahil Aman Azmi, a former army officer, has been named in this team. He has another identity. He is the son of Professor Ghulam Azam, who died after serving life imprisonment for crimes against humanity in 1971. In a press conference at the auditorium of the National Press Club yesterday, he called for the repeal of the 1972 constitution and the creation of a new constitution as well as a new national anthem. Terming the constitution of 72 as 'illegal', he claimed, 'Awami League has not taken any mandate from the people to draft a new constitution. So this constitution is not valid. A new committee should be made and a new constitution should be made, it should be annulled. That is not the end, he repeated in a confusing explanation about the number of 30 lakh martyrs in 1971, "Sheikh Mujib said 3 million when he said 3 million and it has become 3 million. They (Awami League) have cheated people by exploiting people's emotions by saying 30 lakh martyrs without any survey. He also advised the Interim government to determine the number of martyrs in the liberation war by conducting a new survey. The people of the country know that the controversy about the number of martyrs in the liberation war, the misleading talk about the national anthem and the misleading talk about the great liberation war. His family acquaintance is surely not to be lost in the depths of oblivion.
The fall of Awami League and Sheikh Hasina did leave the country. Various discussions will continue in the days to come. This question is difficult to answer in a country where the politics of division persists. Those who call this movement and the fall of the government 'second freedom' are really passionate. Those who are passionately calling the Interim government a 'revolutionary government' to enjoy a second freedom are questioning the utility and existence of the constitution in a post-revolutionary country. It's their fault. The Interim government that is currently functioning is not called a 'revolutionary government'. The idea of a revolutionary government was absent from the oath taken by Dr. Muhammad Yunus as the Chief Adviser of this government. He took an oath to 'protect and uphold the Constitution and provide security'.
Relevantly referring to the oath taken by the Chief Adviser In the oath, the Chief Adviser said—“I, Muhammad Yunus, solemnly swear that I will faithfully discharge the duties of Chief Adviser to the Interim Government as per law. I will have genuine faith and loyalty to Bangladesh. I will protect and support and provide security for the Constitution and I will treat all according to law without fear or favor, affection or displeasure.” In an oath of secrecy he pronounced—“I, Muhammad Yunus, do solemnly swear that all matters brought to my consideration as Chief Adviser to the Interim Government, or such matters as come to my knowledge, are necessary for the proper discharge of my duties as Chief Adviser. Except shall not directly or indirectly inform any person, or disclose to any person.” He has sworn to protect the Constitution, uphold the Constitution and provide security for the Constitution. Here, therefore, his government does not have the opportunity to amend-repeal-rewrite the constitution. By doing so, by directly or indirectly advocating it, he would himself be flouting and defying the Constitution, which would be a punishable offence and also for an offense punishable by the maximum penalty under existing law.
The Interim Government has no opportunity to put its hands on the Constitution including the National Anthem, National Flag and the basic principles of the Constitution. The events of July-August were not a revolution, but at one point it became a movement to overthrow the government. The agitators were successful. In their success, they removed the powerful and empowered themselves. They can try to bring back the democratic atmosphere in the country by changing the ideological and political program; But in any way they do not have the power to touch the national flag, national anthem and constitution. This power or mandate was not given to them by the people.
The interim government is not a revolutionary government; it is a government that has taken power under the oath of the security provisions of the constitution.